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Anti-EDL protests on Saturday

07/02/2012 stevescore No comments

Hundreds of local people turned out to oppose the racist English Defence League (EDL) in Leicester on 4 February. Unfortunately, a massive Police operation involving 2,200 officers on duty, horses, dogs and riot vans allowed around 400 EDL thugs to march through the city centre. It is likely to top the £850,000 cost of having the EDL in Leicester in October 2010. The local paper and the Police overestimated the size of the EDL demo and massively underestimated the various counter mobilisations. The EDL demo was far smaller than last time, and attracted few local people.

The EDL claim their march was to oppose the “discrimination” in the justice system in favour of Muslims! In reality they aim to divide communities in this very diverse city. The elected Labour Mayor and the Police appeased the EDL, who last time rioted through the City, by allowing them to march past the Clocktower- symbolic heart of the city centre.

At the same time, a huge scare campaign was launched to try to prevent local people from opposing the EDL. The Mayor and the local paper equated anti racists to the EDL. Police threatened to remove anyone in the city centre under the age of 18 to a ‘place of safety’, and arrest any protester not in the ‘designated assembly point’.

Despite this, Socialist Party members and other anti racists mobilised alongside hundreds of people in the communities at the clocktower and also on the edge of St Matthews’s estate in an attempt to defend their city. Hundreds also took part in a Unite Against Fascism (UAF) march. Unfortunately this was confined to a designated route on the outskirts of the city centre, away from the route of the EDL.

Some people who had earlier attempted to congregate at the clock tower were pushed back towards the UAF demo. Other groups of local people coming down from the communities of Highfields and St Matthews were kettled by Police and pushed back from the city centre.

There will now be much discussion of tactics.There were obviously significant numbers of people who wanted to attempt, by force of numbers, to block the route of the EDL and stop them coming through the City Centre. This is despite the fact that the Imans had told people to remain in their areas.

There are some who are calling for a ban on marches if the EDL attempt to come back, however the Socialist Party does not agree with that. Last time they banned the marches and allowed static protests the EDL were not contained and the result was racist attacks. It will be the strength of the opposition mobilised by the movement that will stop them. If thousands had managed to mobilise in the city centre the Police would have had no choice but to confine the EDL to the car park they assembled on out of the city centre.

Trades unionists, socialists and people from various local communities now need to organise together to stop the EDL returning. This is linked to building opposition to the cuts and attacks on working class people’s living standards in order to undercut any support racist groups like the EDL can win from working class people disillusioned with all the main political parties are doing.

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Oppose the EDL’s racism in Leicester on the 4th February

23/01/2012 Drew Walton No comments

The ‘English Defence League’ (EDL) is threatening to visit Leicester on Saturday February 4th. The last time they came, in October 2010, they attacked shoppers and smashed city centre shops. They also broke away from Police control and attempted to march on Highfields, an area with a large Muslim population.

The only thing that stopped them was a mass mobilisation of local people including up to 2,000 Asian youth. Socialist Party members and other anti racists stood side by side with the local youth defending their area. At the same time anti-racist protesters who joined the Unite Against Fascism (UAF) rally against the EDL were kettled in by Police.

The EDL are a racist organisation that claims to only oppose “Muslim extremism”. In reality their actions on such demonstrations as this prove otherwise. They use Muslims as a scapegoat, but try to win support amongst people who are looking for someone to blame for the problems they face: Unemployment, poor services and attacks on living standards. They aim to divide working class people and must be opposed with a political answer. However because they bring their racist thugs on these ‘protests’- the issue of physical defence is necessarily raised.

A counter demonstration has been called by trade unions and UAF, which will be well supported. However, there is concern that people do not want a repeat of last time when the UAF were kettled but the EDL were allowed to attack people. There is also a desire in the local communities for self defence. The Socialist Party supports the right of self defence of communities, and believes that a mobilisation will be needed in Highfields and St Mathews on the day. Ideally we need enough people mobilised to defend these areas and to prevent the EDL rampaging through the city centre on the day.

At the time of writing, the exact details are unclear. Last time there was a ban on marches, with the EDL and UAF being allowed ‘static rallies’. In addition last time there was a massive campaign by the Police, the council and religious leaders and others to persuade people not to join the counter protests. It is not yet certain whether the same will happen again.

We will be doing our best to get a turnout on the 4th, at the same time we will be raising socialist answers on the problems people face to cut across the EDLs attempt to divide Leicester. For jobs, homes and services not racism!

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Come along to our first meeting of 2011

04/01/2012 Drew Walton No comments

Steve Score will be reporting from our National Committee meeting in December for our first meeting of 2011. What are the prospects for building the Socialist Party, as we move into another year of struggle in 2012?

Tuesday 10th January, 7.30pm
Turkey Cafe, Granby St, Leicester

All welcome.

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Fight until we win!

16/12/2011 Drew Walton No comments

This is taken from the National Shop Stewards Network site – it is vitally important that this is spread as widely as possible in a short time, so please feel free to circulate to anyone you feel may be supportive. After the magnificent strikes and demonstrations up and down the country on November 30th, we cannot back down and let the government off the hook. They have given almost nothing away in terms of concessions, yet some leaders of trade unions and the tops of the TUC – notably Brendan Barber and Dave Prentis, are preparing to wave the white flag already.

The TUC’s Public Sector Liaison Group (PSLG) has met for the first time since the magnificent 30 November public sector strike.

Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, argued that trade unions should sign up to the government’s latest agreement on pensions, which would then allow Francis Maude to announce before Christmas that the dispute has been settled.

This was met with outrage by many of the public sector trade unions present. Not one of the central demands of public sector workers has been met. All public sector workers are still being told to work longer, pay more and get less. The teaching unions NUT and NASUWT reported that they had been offered no serious concessions by the government, as did the civil servants’ union PCS, the Fire Brigades Union and representatives of workers in the NHS. In local government, the only concession is to delay the attacks on pensions until 2014, provided that local government unions promise to accept the pain without a fight when it comes.

Yet Dave Prentis – general secretary for Unison – the biggest union in health and local government – argued for accepting this rotten deal. Hundreds of thousands of Unison members who struck on 30 November will not agree.

30 November showed the potential power of the working class in Britain. We can force this weak, divided government to retreat, but only if the action is stepped up. The leadership of the TUC and Unison supported N30 because of the pressure of rank and file trade unionists – now we need to do the same again. PCS demanded that the meeting name the day for the next day of national coordinated strike action. In Scotland, Unison delegates have already unanimously proposed 25 January as the day of the next strike.

We all – public and private sector workers alike – need to pile on the pressure for the date of the next strike to be set before Christmas, and to take place in January.

Sign the petition here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/pensions_strike_january/

PCS Left Unity is organising an open meeting at Friends Meeting House, Euston Road, London on Saturday 7 January to demand further action on pensions. This meeting will be open to all reps in any union that took action on N30 and is to put pressure on union leaderships to name a further strike day.

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Jarrow March – still fighting for jobs 75 years on

05/10/2011 Drew Walton No comments

Leicester Socialist Party is proud to be supporting the Jarrow marchers on their 300-mile trek from the North East to London, to highlight that, with 1,000,000 young people unemployed, tuition fees trebling and EMA axed, many of Britain’s young people face a future on the dole queue. It shows the disastrous nature of the capitalist system, that after 75 years, working people are still fighting for what should be a right – an education and a decent job.

See our calendar or download our leaflet for some dates within the region of public meetings and demonstrations in support of the Youth Fight For Jobs campaign.

Nottingham 15th October – regional demo

Loughborough 16th

Leicester 17th – march to Clocktower (assemble at Abbey Park, 5pm)

For more details – see the Jarrow march blog

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NO TO NHS CUTS, DEFEND JOBS AND SERVICES – Lobby the UHL AGM!

16/09/2011 Becci Heagney No comments

Thousands of hospital staff in Leicester working at UHL have received offers of voluntary redundancy, on worse terms and conditions than they would receive under the national NHS agreement. Staff in the hospitals are not being replaced. This is in a drive towards privatisation of the NHS, with hospitals being forced to make cuts in order to get Foundation Trust Status. We say no to privatisation and cuts to the NHS.

Meet at Leicester Tigers Ground, Welford road at 9.30am on Saturday, near the Leicester Royal Infirmary, to do a stall against NHS cuts.

This is to coincide with University Hospitals Leicester’s (UHL) annual general meeting, taking place at 11.30am in the staff restaurant in the Balmoral Building.

Bring a placard and make your voice heard!

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Aftermath of riots: where do we go from here?

07/09/2011 Becci Heagney No comments

A Question Time style debate has been organised in Leicester to discuss the causes of the riots and what demands communities that are affected by cuts, job losses and police brutality and racism put forward.

Please come along to this important event to put across your views and hear what the communities have to say.

The event has been organised by people in the Highfields community. The panellists are still to be confirmed but one will be from the Youth Fight for Jobs campaign.

9th September
5.30pm
Highfields Community Centre
96 Melbourne Road, LE2 0DS

All welcome.

Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=183183818422120

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More cuts to come in Leicester’s hospitals – a campaign needed to fight back!

09/08/2011 Becci Heagney No comments

Socialist Party public meeting
Tuesday 13th September
7.30pm
F-Bar, 95 WALNUT ST, LE2 7LA

Further cuts to the NHS have been announced in addition to the UHL job losses and hike in car parking charges.

The hospital is saying that this needs to be done because of a £8 million overspend. But where has this money gone? Certainly not to the staff who have been worried that they were not going to be paid or the 200 people who didn’t receive their over time pay.

The UHL NHS Trust is making £16 million worth of cuts. There will be more job losses on top of the 417 already announced , a reduction in agency staff and a slashing in the number of beds. Services are already stretched with 350 operations being cancelled between April and June because of a lack of beds.

The merging of certain services in the Leicestershire Partnership Trust will mean around 140 jobs may go, mainly from mental health services. These services help the most vulnerable people in the city and are already under staffed. The tragic suicide of patient Kirsty Brookes last year after she was able to leave the Bradgate Unit at Glenfield was because of under-staffing, she was not being observed. The response of the trust has been to spend £230,000 on an electronic rostering system to make sure there is enough staff on duty. Why not spend that money on hiring staff instead of cutting jobs?

Instead of focusing on the effects on staff and patients, the hospital bosses are looking to profit-driven private companies to solve their financial problems. They are even looking to pay £8 million for a company to send out patient letters to free up staff time!

The decision on proposed rise in car parking charges has been put off until October due to public and staff outrage. They want to double the cost for patients and increase by 13.5% the cost of the staff parking permits. This will only mean more money going to the private company, Serco, that manage the car parks.

The Socialist Party is holding a public meeting to discuss the issues facing the NHS in Leicester and nationally and how we can stop these attacks. We completely disagree with the dismantling of the NHS being pushed by the government. The introduction of Foundation Trusts, started under the previous Labour government, means nothing more than the privatisation of our services. Profit-driven business should be kicked out of the NHS!

We demand:

  • Staff to be guaranteed pay in accordance with their contracts, including overtime and enhancements.
  • No to a hike in car-parking charges – staff and patients shouldn’t pay for something they didn’t cause!
  • Services should be properly funded and wards staffed to meet patient need, not financial profit.
  • Open the books to a trade union led inquiry to see where the ‘overspend’ has gone
  • For an all-members meeting of the trade unions to be held urgently to discuss action, including industrial action, to defeat these attacks.
  • No cuts to jobs and services.
  • No to Foundation Trusts and privatisation. For a socialist NHS to provide for everyone’s health needs – free at the point of use and under democratic control

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