“Strike November 30

http://www.demotix.com/news/789530/give-our-kids-future-march-peacefully-crowds-streets-london

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up6_qujh7Fw&feature=player_embedded#!

North London Unity Assembly                 c/o  www.hapsnews.net   +   http://hackneyalliance.wordpress.com

3,000 march through Hackney & Haringey

on Saturday 13th August to demand Give Our Kids A Future!

On Saturday 13th August, 3,000 people of all ages and backgrounds, mainly from Hackney and Haringey, but with additional support from all around London, marched from Gillet Square, Dalston in Hackney, to Tottenham Green in Haringey. The march was organised and publicised just 2 days before by the hastily formed North London Unity Assembly initiated mainly by Turkish organisations and the Haringey and Hackney Anti-cuts Alliances – see list of some of the supporters at the end.

The aim was to provide a united community response to the recent disturbances, especially those in Tottenham and Hackney, and to the causes of despair and frustration that can result in riots. The march was led all the way by a dozen children behind a huge ‘Give Our Kids A Future!’ banner, followed by a mass of placards and banners from a wide range of community groups, trades union branches and political organisations as well as hand-crafted placards from scores of individuals.

Up to 10,000 leaflets were distributed to the public – text below. The march, which progressed without incident, finished with an ‘open mike’ rally outside Tottenham Town Hall. This consisted of short but heart-felt speeches from over 30 of the marchers explaining how they felt about the recent disturbances and putting forward their views on the way forward for a better future for our youth and for our communities generally.

The Unity Assembly is calling for a culture of valuing, not demonising, youth and unemployed people; support for those affected by the rioting, including the immediate rehousing of people made homeless, grants for affected small businesses, and restoration of damaged areas; reversal of all cuts to youth services in our boroughs; no cuts to public services, but instead, investment into community-led regeneration of our communities, including access for all to decent housing, jobs, education and sports facilities; an independent community inquiry into policing methods in our boroughs, and an end to discriminatory stop and search; and availability of legal support for all those people arrested by police.

Rally/assembly outside Tottenham Town Hall

The text of the leaflet distributed by the North London Unity Assembly

North London Unity Assembly are calling for:

-   a culture of valuing, not demonising, youth and unemployed people;

-   support for those affected by the rioting, including the immediate rehousing of people made homeless, grants for affected small businesses, and restoration of damaged areas;

-  reversal of all cuts to youth services in our boroughs;

-  no cuts to public services, but instead, investment into community-led regeneration of our communities, including access for all to decent housing, jobs, education and sports facilities;

-   an independent community inquiry into policing methods in our boroughs

-     an end to discriminatory stop and search;

-    availability of legal support for all those people arrested by police – young people face potential sentences that will affect them, their families and their wider communities for years to come.

We are responding to the events of the last few days, in particular the Tottenham protest over the killing of Mark Duggan and the disturbances that followed in Tottenham and Hackney.

By coming together and calling for unity we want to encourage all sections of our local communities, young and old, black and white, residents and workers, to work together to find solutions to some of our long-standing problems.

We know there are all kinds of strong feelings and differing views. We do not claim to represent the whole community, but merely seek to promote unity in the communities in which we live and work.

Simply labelling rioters as opportunistic criminals does little to relieve tensions and provides a poor explanation for the worst riots in decades. While the shooting of Mark Duggan provided the trigger, against a background of oppressive policing, especially towards ethnic minorities, the root causes are deeper.

Our communities have been blighted by high levels of deprivation, poverty and lack of opportunity for decades. Inequality is growing and recent funding cuts to local services, particularly youth facilities, along with rising unemployment, and cuts to EMA and benefits have exacerbated the conditions in which sections of frustrated young people turned to rioting, which unfortunately has resulted in people losing their homes and small/family businesses losing their livelihoods.

Britain is a wealthy country, but with deep inequality. The economic crisis created by greedy bankers and financial speculators is further impoverishing already poor areas like Tottenham and Hackney. The 390 billion of combined wealth of the richest 1,000 people in Britain should be redirected to fund the services we all need.

In the last few months we have seen mass local protests against cuts, student occupations to defend free education, a half-a-million strong demonstration on March 26th, and 800,000 public service workers out on strike on June 30th.

We need to build on these and other inspiring local and national struggles. Let’s work together for a decent society, based not on greed, inequality and poor conditions, but on justice, freedom, sharing and co-operation.

North London Unity Assembly Demonstration

GIVE OUR KIDS A FUTURE !

Saturday 13th August Assemble Gillet Square, Dalston, N16 at 1pm.

March to Tottenham Green, N15

Our communities need a united response to both the riots and the causes of
despair and frustration that can result in riots.

We call for:

• A Culture of valuing, not demonising youth and unemployed people.
• Support for those affected by the rioting, including the immediate re-housing
of people made homeless as well as grants for affected small businesses.
• Community led regeneration and restoration of damaged areas.
• Reversal of all cuts to youth services in our boroughs.
• No cuts to public services! Instead, investment into and regeneration of our
communities, including housing, jobs, education and sports facilities.
• An independent community inquiry into policing methods in our boroughs,
and an end to discriminatory stop and search.
• Availability of legal support for all those arrested by police -young people
face potential sentences that will affect them, their families and their wider
communities for years to come. Recommended solicitors are: Bindmans
02078334433, Hodge Jones & Allen: 07659111192
We are responding to the events of the last few days, in particular the Tottenham protest over the killing of Mark Duggan and the riots that
followed in Tottenham and Hackney.

By coming together and calling for unity we want to encourage all sections of
our local communities, young and old, black and white, residents and workers, to work together to find solutions to some of our long-standing problems.

We know there are all kinds of strong feelings and differing views. We do not claim to represent the whole community, but merely seek to promote unity in the communities in which we live.

Simply labelling rioters as opportunistic criminals does little to relieve tensions
and provides a poor explanation for the worst riots in decades. While the
shooting of Mark Duggan provided the trigger, against a background of
oppressive policing, especially towards ethnic minorities, the root causes are
deeper.

Our communities have been blighted by high levels of deprivation, poverty and lack of opportunity for decades. Inequality is growing and recent funding cuts to local services, particularly youth facilities, along with rising unemployment, and cuts to EMA and benefits have exacerbated the conditions in which sections of frustrated young people turned to rioting, which unfortunately has resulted in people losing their homes and small/family businesses losing their livelihoods.

Britain is a wealthy country,but with deep inequality. The economic crisis created by greedy bankers and financial speculators is further impoverishing already poor areas like Tottenham and Hackney. The £390 billion of combined wealth of the richest 1,000 people in Britain should be redirected to fund the services we all need.

In the last few months we have seen mass local protests against cuts, student occupations to defend free education, a half-a-million-strong demonstration on March 26, and 800,000 public service workers out on strike on June 30th.

We need to build on these and other inspiring local and national struggles. Let’s work together for a decent society, based not on greed, inequality and poor conditions, but
on justice, freedom, sharing and cooperation.

North London Unity Demonstration supported by the Haringey Alliance for Public
Services, Hackney Alliance to Defend Public Services, Day-Mer (Turkish and Kurdish
Community Centre), NLCH (North London Community Centre), Day-Mer Youth,
Alevi Cultural Centre, Fed-Bir: , Kurdish Community Centre: Roj Women, Halkevi,
Gik-Der (Refugee Workers Cultural Association), Britania Peace Council: Hundred
Flowers Cultural Centre, TOHUM, Socialist Party, Youth Fight For Jobs, Right To Work, Red Pepper.

Hackney Coalition to save the NHS are calling on Hackney’s citizens to show their opposition to the Coalition government’s plans to smash up the NHS and hand it over to private healthcare companies.

16 July because is still before the Health and Social Care Bill will finish its rush through parliament.

Demonstrate this by linking hands around the Homerton hospital to show we will hold on to our NHS hospitals (and the rest of the NHS) and we won’t let them go.

—

The Coalition government has finished its pause and “Listening exercise” for the Health and Social Care Bill which they now hope to rush through parliament.

The pause produced only cosmetic changes to the Bill.

The two most dangerous elements of the Bill – the throwing open of the NHS to private healthcare companies, and the removal of the duty of the Secretary of State to provide universal healthcare – remain intact.

Keep Our NHS Public has started working with the Hackney Labour Party, Hackney doctors, Homerton hospital workers, Derman Turkish and Kurdish health and wellbeing group and others in a Hackney Coalition to Save the NHS. We are doing this because we need the strength of joining with other groups to defeat this Bill – none of us can do it on our own.

Please help us publicise the demonstration as far and wide as possible.

We really need your help to get the word out as far and wide as possible – it is only a few weeks until 16 July and we need a lot of people to link hands around the Homerton.

Few people understand how pensions work. The government is relying on this in their attacks on public sector pensions. Ministers claim that they are gold-plated, unreformed and unsustainable. The right-wing press join in by saying that it is unfair that private sector workers’ tax should pay for public sector pensions.

Yet what the government is doing is simple. It is asking public sector workers – already facing a two-year pay freeze, job losses and inflation running higher than it has for more than a decade – to make a further, and even more unfair, contribution to reducing the deficit.

They are doing this by trying to impose an arbitrary extra pension contribution of three per cent of pay on the public sector. This is not a pension reform – it is simply a pay cut.”

As usual, common sense from False Economy!

See full article @

http://falseeconomy.org.uk/blog/this-is-not-a-pension-reform-it-is-simply-a-pay-cut

Anti-cuts groups like Hackney Alliance across the country are mobilising people to support these strikes, as we recognise their fight is our fight, to defend our social/public services, services that we pay for.

Most schools in Hackney will be shut (see http://local.teachers.org.uk/hackney/Campaigns/PensiosnJune2011.cfm) and as there will be few strike breakers in Hackney we have decided, with advice from NUT reps, to recommend people go to a limited amount of schools where there will be big pickets or there may be scabs or there are anti union heads.

So we are recommending people go to show support to these pickets lines at 7/7.30;
B6 College (Lea Bridge Road Roundabout), Bridge Academy (Laburnum Street, Haggerston), London Fields Primary (Westgate Street, by Broadway Market) , Woodberry Down Primary (Woodberry Grove) and Hackney Community College (Falkirk Street/Kingsland Road).
And also the PCS picket line at Wilton Way DWP by the Town Hall.

We are recommending people from Shoreditch and the south of the borough go to Bridge Academy first thing and then join the march from there to Hackney Community College, where dozens of ESOL and other staff face redundancy and will be on strike within weeks,  at c.9am.

We are recommending people from the north of the borough come to Hackney Town Hall for 8am for supporting any pickets that may call for support, e.g the Learning Trust or Job Centre.

And that people then converge on Hackney College at 10am for a rally/assembly before moving off to Old Street to go into central London for the mass demo, meeting at Lincoln Inn Fields at 11am

We also understand there may be a UkUncut action in Hackney on the day.

Please have your phone charged and on, to get updates during the morning and please talk to people on picket lines etc!

for more details see;

http://hackneyalliance.wordpress.com/2011/06/29/j30-support-the-anti-cuts-strikes-in-hackney/

http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/campaigns/30-june/

http://www.j30strike.org/

cheers Glyn Harries joint secretary Hackney Alliance to Defend Public Services