Wednesday 25 November 2015

Oppose Youth Service 73% cut – support junior doctors

Southwark Action Alerts     24th November 2015

Southwark Council plans to cut 73% of the youth service budget and effectively end council run youth services as we know them. The council has reneged on its promise to protect frontline services. Please join the lobby on Wednesday (details below and attached).

After the historic vote by BMA members, 98% for strike action over cuts to their salaries and increased hours, junior doctors are asking you to support their action next Tuesday.  Come along to your nearest hospital between 8am and 12noon. King’s College Hospital doctors ask you to come between 8am and midday and bring others with you. (See 1 December below for more info.)

Please tweet this listing, link to our website or post on your own Facebook page. Thank you.

EVENTS LIST

Tuesday 24 November
6pm. Protest: Hands off Tax Credits, Welfare not Warfare and End Austerity Now! Assemble Trafalgar Square, march to Downing Street for rally. The People's Assembly is calling a National Day of Action on the eve of the Autumn Statement. South London supporters will meet under the 4th plinth (the one that changes) at 5.45pm. Invite your Friends on Facebook.

Tuesday 24 November
7pm. Defend Council Housing organising meeting at the Alvey Estate Tenants Hall, ground floor of Thomson House, Beckway Street, off East Street, SE17 1TS. Beckway Street is close to the end of East Street at its junction with the Old Kent Road. More information from southwarkdch@gmail.com

Wednesday 25 November
6.15pm. Lobby Southwark Council Assembly cover Council plans to cut 73% of the youth service budget and effectively end council run youth services as we know them. Meet outside Council offices at 160 Tooley Street SE1. For info and send messages of support contacts 020 7525 3600 or e-mail: contact@southwarkunison.co.uk

Thursday 26 November
6pm. Stand Up to Racism rally - Refugees Welcome here at South Bank Uni, Lecture Theatre A, Keyworth Centre, Keyworth St. SE1. (Ticket at Eventbrite here) Contacts the south London campaign at amy_sutr@hotmail.com

Thursday 26 November
8pm ‘The Trouble with TTIP’ film and speaker: Linda Kaucher at Methodist Church Hall, 155 Half Moon Lane, Herne Hill, SE24 9HU. Organised by 38degrees.

Friday 27 November
6.30pm. Defend Lewisham Southwark College campaign organising meeting at Goldsmiths College (Room tbc). All welcome. Facebook page here.  For more information, contact savelscollege@gmail.com

Friday 27 November
7pm to 9pm. One man comedy show about the NHS. Carl Walker’s show debunks the myths/bad press about a public NHS. Venue: The Bread and Roses pub, 68 Clapham Manor Street, SW4 6DZ. Free entry but suggested donation of £5/£3 unwaged. Eventbrite registration here. Supported by Lambeth KONP.

​Monday 30 November
10.30am​ Protest to hand in petition against TTIP (Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) at Downing Street. It is so big that it will stretch from Downing Street to the Houses of Commons. Organised by Unite the Union.

Tuesday 1 December
8am. Protest in support of junior doctors on Day 1 of the strike (also on Tues 8th and Wed 16th). Assemble corner Bessemer Road/Denmark Hill SE5 (or go to your nearest hospital). Information at BMA Website here or Doctors in UNITE Facebook page here. Download a petition sheet for your workplace and a solidarity selfie here. Contact southwarksos@gmail.com to arrange for a doctor to speak to TU members at your place of work or union branch meeting. Send messages of support to kings.juniordoctors2015@gmail.com

Saturday 5 December
10am – 5pm. People's Assembly Annual Conference. Speakers for the conference include, John McDonnell MP, Francesca Martinez, Dr Rory Hicks (Junior Doctors Campaign), Christine Blower, Dave Ward, Natalie Bennett and more to be confirmed. Venue: Friends Meeting House, Euston Road, London. Organised by The People's Assembly Against Austerity. Tickets and more information here.

Tuesday 17 November 2015

73% Cuts to Youth and PLAYservice!


Stop the destruction of youth services in Southwark!

Lobby Southwark Council!
Tuesday 17th November
Meet at 3.30p.m
160 Tooley Street  SE1

Southwark Council plans to cut 73% of the youth service budget and effectively end council run youth services as we know them.

The council proposes to cut £2.5 million from the youth service budget leaving less than £1million to work with some of the most disadvantaged young people in London. 122 full and part time posts will be reduced to just 42 part time posts.

The council also plans to shut a number of its 8 youth centres. The cuts are to be made by April 2016 and the rest of the ‘service’ transferred to the Environment and Leisure department. This will de-professionalise and de-skill professional youth workers.

The council has reneged on its promise to protect frontline services. Jeremy Corbyn, Labour Party leader, has said ‘austerity is a political choice’. Southwark must not abandon young people whilst sitting on millions of pounds of reserves which can be used to support the local community along with the fight to get more money from central government.

If the proposals go through then vulnerable young people will be left with no effective support and inadequate safeguarding - prey to dangerous elements on the streets.

Come along to the lobby! And we urge you to lobby other community related forums with young people and families to stop this destruction of the service!

Supported by GMB, Unison and Unite unions

Sunday 8 November 2015

Attacks on library services, housing, trade unions

Southwark Action Alerts                                                              7th November 2015

Today is another chance to support those in neighbouring Lambeth who are marching in protest at the plan to close three  libraries and convert five other into unstaffed ‘lounges’.  On Tuesday, college lecturers are on strike and in the evening there is another chance to protest against the government’s new laws restricting trade unions ability to organise strikes. With junior doctors currently balloting for industrial action over cuts to their salaries and increased hours, you can support their call for strike action here. Watch for updates in our next newsletter or join the workshop at the conference on 14 November (details below).

Please tweet this listing, link to our website or post on your own Facebook page. Thank you.

EVENTS LIST

Saturday 7 November
10.30 – 12.30pm. March to Save Lambeth Libraries from Brixton Library to Tate South London Library where Cabinet Member Jane Edbrooke (responsible for the proposals to 'decommission' five of Lambeth's libraries) will be holding her surgery. Assemble Windrush Square, Brixton. More details here.

Saturday 7 November
12.30pm -1.30pm. Stall organised by Southwark Defend Council Housing Campaign in Rye Lane (outside Boots), Peckham SE15. Campaigners will be collecting names on a petition to give to Southwark Council against the selling off of council housing, being replaced by mainly private rented housing.

Tuesday 10 November
7.30am onwards. Picket-lines at Lewisham Southwark College as part of a further education national strike action over pay. There will be picket lines at all 3 sites: Lewisham Way, Deptford and Waterloo. Please go along and show your support if you can. Strike call by UCU. Details of the action here.

Tuesday 10 November
6pm. Protest at the third reading of the Trade Union bill which will restrict unions’ ability to organise strikes in defence of jobs, conditions and services. Assemble in Parliament Square. Organised by Trade Union Coordinating Group. Details and leaflet to download here .

Saturday 14 November
11am – 5pm. Fight Austerity, Defend our Unions conference. Speakers include Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, Matt Wrack (FBU), Natalie Bennett (Green Party Leader), Kevin Courtney (NUT), Steve Gillan (POA) and John Hendy QC.
Workshops include the fight against unsocial hours contracts in the health service, opposition to the Trade Union bill, benefit cuts, combatting racism and scapegoating. Organised by Unite the Resistance. Venue: Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church, 235 Shaftesbury Ave, London, WC2H 8EP. Book your ticket here.

Thursday 19 November
6.30pm. South London People’s Assembly Organising meeting. Bread & Roses pub, 68 Clapham Manor St, London SW4 6DZ. More information from secretary@southlondonpa.org. Click here for the facebook event.

Thursday 19 November
7pm - 9pm. Lambeth Keep Our NHS Public organising meeting in Pratts and Payne, 103 Streatham High Road, SW16 1HJ.  (Note the change of day and venue this month.) There is no Southwark KONP group so Southwark activists please make contact with this Lambeth group to find out about local activity. The group have a new Facebook page at www.facebook.com/LambethKONP .

COMING SOON

Saturday 21 November
1pm - 5pm. London Rally: Building the Fight Against Austerity. See Facebook .

Tuesday 24 November
6pm. Protest: Tories: Out of Credit - Out of Office Now Protest on day of the Autumn Statement. See facebook event here.

Tuesday 24 November
7pm. Defend Council Housing meeting. More information from southwarkdch@gmail.com

Thursday 26th November
8pm ‘The Trouble with TTIP’ film and speaker in Herne Hill, SE24. Organised by 38degrees.

Saturday 5 December
People's Assembly Annual Conference
10am – 5pm. Central London. Tickets and more information will be available soon here.