Justice postponed….

Sixteen years ago war was raging in former Yugoslavia and I went to the UN World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna. I was involved in the international campaign to have rape recognised as a war crime, as it was being used as a mass weapon of terror in that war, as it has been in most wars. The previous widespread acceptance that this was just something that automatically happens in war was successfully challenged by a coalition of feminist organisations.

All of the horror of what was happening on Western Europe’s doorstep came flooding back tonight as I listened to From Fact to Fiction on Radio 4, a heart-rending response to Radovan Karadzic’s first appearance at the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

And he has of course claimed that he needed more time to prepare his defence and that his fundamental rights have been violated…..

Postie Solidarity

A moving documentary about the work-in on Clydeside back in 71 on BBC 4 last night – Time Shift: The Men who built the Liners was great to watch with my mum as there’s family history there – my mum’s grandfather was a works manager at one of the yards there – his father had been a sailing ship captain. “Such was the Clyde shipbuilders’ pride in their work, and the strength of public support, that in 1971 they were able to defy a government attempt to close them down and win the right to carry on shipbuilding.”

We urgently need that level of solidarity now in the face of the onslaught from both Tory and New Labour. The strength of the vote by the postal workers for strike action shows that people can organise and are not demoralised, that unions can be a force for change.

Tomorrow there will be collection and leafletting in solidarity with the postal workers at Grey’s Monument in Newcastle from 2.00 – everyone encouraged to bring banners and placards.

The next meeting of the North East Postal Worker’s Support Group is on Tuesday 3rd November at 6.30pm at Gateshead Civic Centre – 2 minutes from Gateshead Metro.

As the flyer for the meeting says

Postal workers across the country are taking strike action in defence of their conditions and a vital public service. Solidarity from every trade unionist and service user is vital. Civil service workers, teachers, council workers and others face similar attacks on pay, jobs and conditions. All of us face widespread cuts in public services and the threat of privatisation as we are meant to pay for an economic crisis not of our making. There has never been a more urgent need for unity and solidarity.

This meeting will be discussing and organising practical solidarity and support for the striking postal workers. Please bring donations, collections and ideas for fundraising events and activities.

For further information about the meeting contact 0191 433 2948 or 0754 550 1332

A glimpse of what is possible

The first practical project by the South of the Tyne Transition Town took place last Sunday – in my front garden. Half a dozen wonderful people came along with gifts of plants and their labour and together we transformed my normal suburban (if rather untidy and weedy) front garden – see photo below

Before....

We removed the large ornamental shrub in the middle of the small lawn and replaced it with a raised bed (constructed from bits of left over timber from replacing our old fence after it blew down in high winds a while back). We filled it with a mix of home made compost from our very own compost bin and soil from the back garden, which had been moved from one area to another when we had widened the path to the shed and so was kind of raised anyway and could be spared.

We planted some greens that my wonderful veg box delivery man, Chris Malcolm, had brought – he had asked the farm in N Yorkshire where the boxes come from if they could spare some plants and I was expecting small seedlings. Instead I got fully grown brussel sprout, cabbage and red russian kale. Diane who has an allotment brought some onion sets and some potatoes she’d sprouted already, plus a strawberry plant someone had given her. Anna brought a mint plant which we planted in a container as mint can go mad in open ground.

I provided some warming lentil soup (full of lovely veg from my veg box of course), to keep everyone going, though actually we had a lovely mild, sunny day – perfect…

After!

Of course this is just the start, both for my garden and for the transition town. I want to plant fruit bushes and make another raised bed, and provide more shelter from the wind which whistles up Mowbray Road from the sea – probably with willow fencing combined with live willow that you plant. Small really will be beautiful.

And Diane and Phil are getting a website up and running, more news soon.

Watch this space…..

More info on our transition town from Anna Heyman: her email is annaheyman2006@yahoo.co.uk

No u-turn yet…

Neither Lord Mandelson or Mr Miliband were interested in meeting with Keep Metro Public or Stop the War coalition on Friday – no surprise there. However the substantial number of protesters certainly made themselves heard – apparently the two Ms were in the canteen just inside the Lisle Road entrance and were bound to hear the protesters. It was also reported that Alistair Darling had come along to join the local Labour luvvies. My, my three cabinet ministers in our town…

Keep Metro Campaign chair Vicki Gilbert said

We had a very good response from the 50 people leafletted and Stop the War had about 40 people out. It was good humoured and no trouble as they said on newcastle radio, though they did not mention what we were protesting about.

It was important to send a message to these senior cabinet members that we will not quietly accept privatisation of our public services.

In contrast, we send congratulations to Independent Councillor George Waddle for leading a debate on this issue in South Tyneside Council last Thursday and finally securing a vote on the Metro privatisation. The Labour Group had resisted such a vote for well over a year. The vote was carried on the resolution “We call upon South Tyneside Council to do everything possible to ensure that the Metro system is retained in public ownership.”

U-turn Mandy now!

The Prince of Darkness himself will have a chorus of protest when he arrives for his lecture tomorrow night. Not only are we in the Keep Metro Public campaign going to be there to call for a u-turn on privatisation of our Metro, but the Stop the War coalition will be demanding the government “Bring the troops home – Jobs not Bombs”. There may even be some striking postal workers there, who knows…

KMP will be outside the lecture at Harton Technology College, Lisle Road from 6.30pm till the Mandelson lecture begins at 7pm. Our fatcat, Sylvester, will be there along with “fatcats” in bowler hats. We will be handing out leaflets to the audience as they go in and asking them to raise this issue in any opportunity for questions to Lord Mandelson or indeed his host, Mr Miliband MP.

Another update on the Metro situation – the 3rd bidder Serco-NED were in fact rejected, no reasons given, no right of appeal, though do have the right to legal challenge…. Also the 4th bidder, Hong Kong-based MTR, who pulled out in May, are acting as consultants to the so-called in-house bid – murkier and murkier….

Feminist Green in Gateshead

Bea Campbell, Green Party parliamentary candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn and feminist journalist, author, playwright, broadcaster and campaigner will be at the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival this weekend. It’s at The Sage in Gateshead and she will participate in a Free Thinking Debate: Is there a future for men? this Sunday 3.15 – 4.15pm

The debate will be broadcast in a future Night Waves programme on Radio 3.

Lots of other interesting stuff on all weekend – free tickets from The Sage 0191 443 4661 or The Sage website

Fascism – never again!

BNP leader Nick Griffin should not be on Question Time next week and yesterday’s Guardian editorial Wrong party, wrong programme made the argument crystal clear.

Unite Against Fascism is calling upon all of its supporters to protest to the BBC by

1. Complaining to the BBC by phoning 03700 100 222 or online at www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms
2. Signing the UAF statement by going to www.uaf.org.uk
3. Joining the Facebook group protesting at the BBC decision at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=156791458824
4. Demonstrating outside the BBC’s “Pink Palace” in Barrack Road, Newcastle on Thursday the 22^nd of October at 5.30pm
   

Go along to the Love Music Hate Racism gig at the Cluny after the demo on Thursday 22nd 7 till 11pm. Tickets £3 on the door, from the Cluny or phone 07863 599 987. Acts include Underline Hero, The 27 Club, DJ Dave, Charlotte Yanni, Jontun and Urban Geisha.

We cannot allow this normalisation of a fascist party. The fact that the BNP have had councillors and now 2 MEPs elected does not mean that they are democrats. Their policies are clearly fascist, as were Hitler’s when he was elected, before of course he tore up the constitution and launched the Third Reich. Fascist dictators were in power still in Europe (Franco in Spain and Salazar in Portugal) until the 70s, in my lifetime, and my mum was born in 33 when Hitler was elected. As a letter to the Guardian yesterday pointed out some of our grandparents had to face down the British Union of Fascists [letter from Steve Perry]. This is the time to stand up against the fascists, before they get any stronger; not to allow a liberal ideal of free speech to justify a high-profile appearance by a fascist leader on our public service broadcaster.

No to fat cats running our Metro Mr Brown!

Keep Metro Public campaigners went to protest outside the constituency surgery of Minister for the North East, Nick Brown MP, in Byker last Saturday morning. Mr Brown had not replied to our request to meet with him in his role as Minister – in fact we had tried six times and been fobbed off with the usual “he will get back to you”.

We were in full song “We will keep the Metro public, yes we will….” when Mr Brown arrived and was about to sweep past us without a second glance until he realised the cameras were there! He stopped to ask “What’s all this about?” and when we carried on, he tutted and went inside the community centre.

The cameras were from BBC Look North along with photographers from the Sunday Sun and the News Guardian. They interviewed a spokesperson from our campaign and tried to get Mr Brown to come out and talk – he didn’t…

Mr Brown’s election agent arrived shortly after, Davy Woods, who happens to be the Chair of the Integrated Transport Authority (which was until recently the Passenger Transport Authority – obviously all pretence of passengers being important now being dropped). Mr Woods kept repeating that he couldn’t speak for Mr Brown and didn’t have anything to say himself.

One of Mr Brown’s secretaries followed and he was unaware of our requests and that he would get back to us. Surprise, surprise no invitation to meet Mr Brown has arrived yet.

Our demo was covered on Look North last Saturday and in the Sunday Sun the next day. Today’s Chronicle has an excellent article clearly laying out RMT’s case against the appalling industrial relations record of the private bidder, Deutsche Bahn.

The next exciting opportunity to protest is at the Peter Mandelson lecture in South Shields next Friday 23 October, 7pm, Harton Technology College, Lisle Road, South Shields. We will be demanding a u-turn on the privatisation of the Metro. Mr Mandelson was good enough to do a u-turn on privatisation of the Royal Mail – he needs to get the same message from Reds and Greens here in the North East. We won’t let the fat cats take over our public services without a fight!

PS It was my turn to wear the lovely Sylvester Fat Cat outfit – any volunteers for the Mandelson demo?!

Dig for victory!

The South of the Tyne Transition Town was born yesterday and we will be doing some digging very soon!

Our first practical project will be the conversion of a normal front garden to food production, starting in 2 weeks time. The garden in question is actually my own – I offered it as we have been intending to do this but haven’t managed it on our own. We all decided that this would be a good place to start and would show that it is definitely not all about big projects, getting grant funding or permission from the council etc etc. It is about small is beautiful and starting in one’s own backyard. We really have to foster that war-time spirit, when people had to grow as much of their own food as possible. We will have to have carbon rationing and although this can sound grim, we can have lots of fun together too.

It feels very exciting to be part of what is now a global network. It was great to have a speaker from the Durham Transition Town which has been going over 2 years to share their experience and give us the wider picture, especially the inspiration from Cuba’s survival after the shock of the end of cheap Soviet oil.

We also had a Newcastle Transition Town member come to support us and invite us to their Apple Day at the Community Orchard in West Jesmond next Saturday 17th October. It’s 2 till 4pm on the corner of Highbury and Fairfield Road, nearest metro West Jesmond. There will be a session on how to grow apples and pears successfully up here, plus lots of fun and apples to try. Everyone welcome.

We decided to work on food growing, transport, awareness raising, renewable energy, using new technology and education/working with young people.

We will be showing films such as Age of Stupid, End of Suburbia and The Power of Community: How Cuba survived peak oil. More on this soon…

So if you want to join in – get in touch! Especially if you want to do some digging.

Think Global – Act Local

And then there was one …

The privatisation of our Metro goes from bad to worse.

Only one private company, Deutsche Bahn, is now left in the bidding process to run the Metro train operations, following the Dutch company Serco-NED’s pull-out last Friday. They gave no reason, just as the Hong-Kong rail company gave none when they pulled out earlier this year.

But actually there are two. A new private company, Nexus Rail, has been set up and although referred to as the in-house bid this is still a separate and private company, with different directors. This is conveniently ignored by some of the region’s MPs and the councillors who argue we should simply support the in-house bid and that if it succeeds it won’t be privatisation. Then again, they (along with Nexus’s boss Bernard Garner) argue that none of this is privatisation at all – that bringing in a private company to run the trains for the next nine years, at a profit of up to 15%, is simply a market testing procedure to ensure “Best Value”.

Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary, said

“We know that at least a million pounds has been wasted on the Tyne and Wear Metro privatisation drive so far – money that could have been invested back into the service.

“Now we are down to just one private bidder in a move from competitive tendering to what looks very much like monopoly tendering. This whole ill-conceived privatisation scheme should be scrapped now before more damage is done and even more money is wasted.”

We need to keep the pressure up – we could still turn this around, especially after the re-nationalisation of the East Coast mainline and the u-turn on privatisation of the Royal Mail in the summer.

So join the Keep Metro Campaign – there are local groups in all 5 boroughs of Tyne and Wear – I’m the Co-ordinator of S Tyneside!

The next public meeting Tuesday November 3rd, 6pm at the Tyneside Irish Centre in Newcastle – speakers invited from RMT, Unison and Unite.

Contact: KMP Secretary, Kevin Flynn at Newcastle Trades Council Building, 4 The Cloth Market, Newcastle NE1 1EE 0191 232 4606