Sussex LRC

55 Weeks To Save The NHS

7pm – 9pm, Tuesday 15 April 2014

Refreshments available from 6.30pm

The Friends’ Meeting House, Ship Street, Brighton BN1 1AF

With the Coalition busy bringing in more and more private contractors to run NHS services, selling-off NHS assets, and undermining the morale of healthcare workers with insulting and divisive pay offers, now almost 78% of health workers have no confidence in That Tory Hunt.  Clearly the British people must take action to defend the NHS.  It is vital for us to hold Labour to Andy Burnham’s promise to keep the NHS free at the point of use and funded by general taxation.  We must resist any regressive membership fee, which is just another step towards total privatisation of the NHS.

Discuss how we save our NHS with representatives of all the major health unions – Gordon McKay of UNISON Scotland Health, Ian Evans of Unite’s National Industrial Sector Committee for Health, Andy Prendergast – the GMB‘s Senior Organiser who dealt with Matthew Kershaw in London, before Kershaw brought his cutting ways to Brighton & Sussex NHS, and local healthworker Mick Foote.  All joined by Nancy Platts – Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Brighton Kemp Town and Peacehaven.

How Can Labour Re-Build Trust with Teachers?

7pm – 9pm, Saturday 19 April 2014

Refreshments available from 6.30pm

Community Base (South Wing door), Queens Road, Brighton BN1 3XG

Teachers are breaking under excessive workloads and suffering the continual undermining of their profession by Gove.  Yet the media reports that Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt accepts many of Michael Gove’s policies.  Why is this when those policies are so hated by teachers, school staff, students, many parents and most Labour Party members?

Join Kevin Courtney – the NUT’s Deputy General Secretary, Nancy Platts – Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Brighton Kemp Town & Peacehaven, Paul Shellard from Brighton & Hove NUT, Brighton school student Sian Carey,  plus a representative of local teaching assistants, who sought Labour’s support for their fight against Coalition cuts.  Discuss what we can do – either to change Tristram Hunt’s mind about supporting Coalition education policies, or to change Ed Miliband’s mind about Tristram Hunt.  Teachers have had enough!

Don’t miss these two great April meetings on key issues for the Left.

Fast Food Workers Are Hungry For Justice!

Please Support Second National Day of Action

Meet 12 noon, Saturday 29 March 2014

Outside McDonald’s, Western Road, Brighton

Sussex LRC and others backed the first National Day of Action for fast food workers by organising a protest outside McDonald’s in Western Road, Brighton on Saturday 15 February 2014.  Staff, customers and passersby showed great interest in the campaign leaflets, and support for an end to zero hour contracts.  Please join us on Saturday 29 March 2014 for the second national day of action.  We shall be leafleting outside McDonald’s from 12noon to 1pm and then deciding whether to move to another fast food outlet.  The action will last from 12-2pm.

“This campaign is about bringing to an end the heinous zero hours contracts in operation across the industry.  It is about people receiving pay that they can live on; it is about fighting for a pay rise for workers.  We are talking about hugely profitable companies here — they can afford to pay their workers a decent wage.”  Ian Hodson, national president of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU).

Working in fast food restaurants means low pay, insecure jobs and poor employment conditions for most people.  The Fast Food Rights campaign aims to recruit fast food workers into a trade union so that they can fight collectively for decent pay, secure contracts and respectful treatment.  All trade unionists are asked to support this day of action which will see protests outside different branches of McDonald’s, Burger King and Costa nationwide.  Come along to join us outside McDonald’s in Western Road, Brighton from 12noon.

McDonald’s, the leader of the UK’s fast food industry, boosts its mega profits by forcing 90% of its workforce to accept zero hours contracts.  In 2012, fast food chains in the UK saw sales rise to a staggering £6.9 billion.  Despite these huge profits, the average UK fast food worker earns just £5 an hour (PayScale figures, January 2014).  By employing so many young workers, fast food chains exploit the age exceptions in the UK’s minimum wage laws to increase their already huge profits.  They also take advantage of most young people having little or no experience of the advantages of organising together in trades unions.   Support this campaign which is part of an international movement of fast food workers fighting for their rights, from New Zealand and Australia to the USA and now the UK.

Support NUT one-day strike

Wednesday 26 March 2014

Brighton – join marches  from Blakers & Saunders  Parks 10.30am

Hove – join march from Hove Town Hall 10.30am

Brighton & Hove rally at The Brighthelm Centre 11.30am

Eastbourne – meet at the seafront Bandstand 10.30am

Hastings – meet at the White Rock Theatre 10.30am

Teachers  have had enough of unprecedented attacks on education and their profession by the Coalition.  Members of the NUT – the largest teachers’ union in most Sussex schools – are taking strike action this Wednesday to Stand Up For Education against Gove’s unremitting attacks on our state education system.  Gove has backed free schools and forced schools to become academies in a drive to stealthily privatise education and simultaneously undermine teachers’ authority, status, pay, conditions and pensions.

Hear teachers’ explaining why they’ll be striking this Wednesday in this short NUT video and use the links below to read more about the key issues of this strike:

• excessive workload and bureaucracy – could you cope working nearly 60 hours a week like the average primary school teacher or even 56 hours like the average secondary school teacher?
• in defence of the teachers’ national pay scale which, like the collaborative nature of teaching is undermined by performance related pay .  Do you really want your local school head wasting their precious time negotiating individual pay agreements with every teacher?
• unfair pension changes – do you want your children being educated and looked after everyday by teachers aged 68 or older?

(c) Fiona Phillips, The Mirror, 22 March 2014

The Mirror’s Fiona Phillips has declared her full support for striking teachers and awarded a gold star to Wednesday’s strike by NUT members.  We ask you to do the same.    In Brighton & Hove you can support teachers locally by joining one of the three marches starting from Blakers Park, Saunders Park and Hove Town Hall at 10.30am.  These will lead to a rally at The Brighthelm Centre at 11.30am.  In Eastbourne, meet at the Bandstand on the seafront at 10.30am.  In Hastings, meet at the White Rock Theatre at 10.30am.

“Teachers have had enough.  They’ve had enough of the attacks on their pay, on their pensions and their working conditions.  But most of all they’ve had enough of the attacks on education.  It’s time to stand up for education. It’s time to stand up for teachers.  Please support the strikes.”  This blog from Teachers ROAR was written before one of the earlier teachers’ strikes, but it explains exactly why, like Fiona Phillips, we should all support Wednesday’s national NUT strike.

Please show your solidarity with striking teachers on Wednesday 26 March 2014 and make a date to join us at Community Base in Brighton on Saturday 19 April.  Discuss how Labour can re-build trust with teachers with Kevin Courtney – NUT Deputy General Secretary, Nancy Platts – Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Brighton Kemp Town & Peacehaven, Brighton school student Sian Carey, plus representatives of local teaching assistants and teachers.  Meeting starts 7pm; refreshments will be available from 6.30pm.  See our Events section for full details.

Tony Benn at Brighton Fringe 2012; (c) Morten Watkins

Many have commented on Tony Benn since his death on Friday 14 March 2014.   A giant of socialism dies peacefully at home was one of the best obituaries, appearing in The Morning Star.  By contrast much of the mainstream media comment has been distorted – and distastefully venomous about someone so recently passed.  This is testament to the real threat posed by Tony’s undiminished advocacy of socialism and social justice.  The media and the establishment it represents remain fearful of the solidarity and action that a political giant like Tony could inspire with his clarity of vision.  Tony’s writings and recordings mean that inspiration remains available to us undimmed.

Tony Benn was simply the best known socialist in Britain, a former Cabinet Minister and an RAF veteran.  The longest-serving Labour MP to date, Tony stepped down as an MP in 2001 after 50 years in Parliament, famously declaring that he wanted to spend more time on politics.  In his time dubbed Britain’s “greatest living Parliamentarian”, Tony was one of the most loved politicians of the last fifty years and consistently topped polls as Britain’s favourite politician – not least because he saw politics as a duty, not a career.

Tony Benn at Brighton Fringe 2013; (c) Morten Watkins

Sussex LRC was honoured by Tony’s presence at our centrepiece event for Brighton Fringe in 2012 and delighted when Tony returned again in 2013.  Tony was planning to attend Brighton Fringe again this year so, on Saturday 31 May 2014, we will now celebrate Tony’s commitment to socialism and also remember Bob Crow, with Jeremy Corbyn MP, Nancy Platts – Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Brighton Kemp Town & Peacehaven, Robb Johnson and others.

Paying an immediate tribute, Jeremy Corbyn MP described Tony Benn as “a legend of indefatigable optimism, humour and strength” who believed that ordinary people could bring about enormous change.  Jeremy continued: “It was an honour and privilege to work closely with him for decades and we owe him so many thanks in so many ways for all he taught us, from promoting public ownership of industry, to understanding our own radical history, ending racism and discrimination, opposing wars and nuclear weapons.  Above all he inspired us to understand values of democracy and honesty in our cause. There will be a big gap in the lives of millions today”.

Tony Benn steadfastly supported the miners throughout the 1984/85 strike

Bolsover MP Dennis Skinner, who had known Tony since 1970 and was a neighbouring MP when Tony represented the Chesterfield constituency said: “I will remember him as a great member of parliament, a political activist, a great diarist, an MP who believed not only in parliamentary activity but also in extra-parliamentary activity.  He was a socialist colleague in a constituency next to mine for something like 17 years so we campaigned together and I well remember traversing the country with him during the miners’ strike in 1984/85.  He was one of the greatest assets the Labour Party has ever had.  He was a campaigner and a teacher.  His whole idea was about trying to influence people, not just in parliament but outside too.”

John McDonnell MP, current Chair of the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs which Tony founded, said: “Tony Benn was the articulate advocate of socialism who inspired my generation and gave us all hope of a fair and equal society.  He will be remembered for his principled commitment to his socialist beliefs and his principled stand on so many issues.  His passing adds to a terribly sad week for the Left, coming so soon after the loss of Bob Crow.”

John McDonnell pays careful attention to Tony Benn at Brighton Fringe 2012; (c) Morten Watkins

Bob Crow with Tony Benn; (c) RMT

In his last speech to the House of Commons, Hansard records Tony Benn raising five questions we should all ask of the powerful

Bob Crow in Brighton on Saturday 8 March 2014; (c) Morten Watkins

Much has been written about Bob Crow since his sudden and tragically early death on Tuesday 11 March 2014 and our thoughts remain with his family, friends and all RMT members.  A book of condolences is available to sign online and at RMT’s London headquarters.

Just three days earlier Sussex LRC had been delighted to host Bob at Brighton’s celebration of the 30th anniversary of the 1984/85 Miners’ Strike where, in characteristic style, Bob emphasised the need to carry on the fight:

“This year’s 30th anniversary of the miners’ strike is not only an opportunity to mark the extraordinary courage and determination of the mining communities in the teeth of the full force of a state-sponsored operations to break them, but also gives us a chance to ignite the same kind of fighting spirit and unity that we need to counter the attacks that the unions and the working class are under today.”  (Bob Crow, speaking in Brighton, Saturday 8 March 2014)

Bob Crow in Brighton on Saturday 8 March 2014;
(c) Morten Watkins

Bob was one of the most successful union leaders of our time, whose leadership made the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) one of the UK’s fastest growing trades unions. Bob’s passing is a devastating loss both to the labour movement in the UK and to workers across the world.  In a wonderful tribute by Mark Serwotka, the PCS General Secretary describes Bob as “the greatest trade union leader of his generation”, adding:

“Bob was without doubt a towering force in our movement. He represented the very best of trade unionism… His death leaves a very large hole but I hope we don’t just mourn – Bob would have been the first to denounce us if we did.  I hope his legacy is a wider recognition that we need more people like Bob. People who fight tirelessly for rights at work, to improve pay and conditions, and against the relentless drive of privatisation that has proved so damaging to our rail industry that was so close to Bob’s heart… I will miss him, the union movement will miss him and, if we don’t pick up where he left off, society will be the poorer for his death.”  (Mark Serwotka, General Secretary, PCS)

Other notable tributes include a touching short piece by Kevin Maguire in The Mirror:

“I loved spending time with him. Over a drink or dinner you’d have a bloody good discussion and laugh like a drain.  He was intelligent, irreverent, had a heart of gold and a surprisingly soft handshake… Right-whingers who portayed him as a union dinosaur exposed their own prejudice.  He’d roar at them with laughter.  I can’t believe he’s gone at 52.  RIP a working class hero.”  (Kevin Maguire)

Sussex LRC Chair, Claire Wadey, listens to Bob Crow speaking in Brighton on Saturday 8 March 2014

A grateful Jeremy Corbyn MP also wrote in the Morning Star:

“Bob was always on his members’ side.  We can remember Bob as someone who always stood up for others and who showed that even in difficult times for the labour movement, union membership can grow.  Thanks, Bob, for you all you did.”  (Jeremy Corbyn MP)

Bob Crow was undoubtedly one of the greatest trades union leaders of our time, and will be remembered especially fondly by those who worked and campaigned with him for public ownership of the railways, justice for Britain’s mineworkers, trade union freedoms, Cuba Solidarity, and the many other causes to which Bob gave his time and energy so selflessly.

It has been truly unbelievable for many of us to grasp that such a forceful and vibrant person is no longer with us.

RIP Bob Crow 1961-2014 – a leader and comrade who would say mourn, yes; but then organise and fightback!

Bob Crow outside the Brighton Friends’ Meeting House on Saturday 8 March 2014; (c) Morten Watkins

An afternoon of music, politics, memories & laughs

1.30pm-4.30pm, Saturday 8 March (doors 1pm)

Friends’ Meeting House, Ship Street, Brighton BN1 1AF

Join us to share your memories of the 1984/84 Miners’ Strike

Together with Brighton & Hove District Trades Council, representatives of the Kent miners, Women Against Pit Closures, and some excellent speakers, musicians and comedians, we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the 1984/85 Miners’ Strike and mark International Women’s Day.  Sussex LRC’s normal range of tasty refreshments will also be available!

Betteshanger Women’s Support Group, 1984

Our headliners include Bob Crow (RMT), Manuel Cortes (TSSA) and Simon Weller (ASLEF) – reflecting the great solidarity shown by railway workers to the miners during the strike – with Joy Hurcombe from Labour CND, as well as singer/songwriter Robb Johnson, comedian and activist Kate Smurthwaite, and the Malthouse Duo with Don Walker on sax and Robert Deering on keyboards.

Kate Smurthwaite

As this event is a fundraiser for the Kent Miners’ Festival and the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign, we want to ensure the Friends’ Meeting House is full to capacity, so, wherever possible, please email or contact us to buy your tickets in advance.   To publicise this meeting please download our poster above, either to display or to use as a flyer.  Most importantly, email us soon to buy your tickets: £5 waged or £3 unwaged.  No one should miss this great event! 

Lastly, urge your MP to sign Early Day Motion 1008 which, like us and thousands of others across the UK, notes the 30th anniversary of the 1984/85 Miners’ Strike, the devastation it caused to local communities, and the miners who still wait for justice following wrongful arrests, convictions and injuries.  After almost three weeks, no Sussex MP has signed EDM 1008.  A disgrace given the suffering of the Kent mining communities that many in Sussex witnessed and will never forget.  Solidarity with the miners!

Frank Loveday, BFAWU speaks at next Brighton & Hove LRC meeting

7.30pm, Thursday 27 February 2014

Lord Nelson Inn, Trafalgar Street, Brighton

Brighton & Hove LRC meets every other month for a friendly discussion around a table in the backroom of the Lord Nelson Inn, which is five minutes walk from Brighton railway station, straight down Trafalgar Street.  All welcome at these friendly and informal meetings.  Please download the poster above to display or use as a flyer to publicise this meeting.  Fast food workers are worth decent pay and conditions.

Sussex LRC and others backed the National Day of Action for fast food workers by organising a protest outside McDonald’s in Western Road, Brighton on Saturday 15 February 2014.  Staff, customers and passersby showed great interest in the campaign leaflets, and support for an end to zero hour contracts.

“This campaign is about bringing to an end the heinous zero hours contracts in operation across the industry.  It is about people receiving pay that they can live on; it is about fighting for a pay rise for workers.  We are talking about hugely profitable companies here — they can afford to pay their workers a decent wage.”  Ian Hodson, national president of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU).

Working in fast food restaurants means low pay, insecure jobs and poor employment conditions for most people.  The Fast Food Rights campaign aims to recruit fast food workers into a trade union so that they can fight collectively for decent pay, secure contracts and respectful treatment.  All trade unionists are asked to support this day of action which will see protests outside different branches of McDonald’s, Burger King and Costa nationwide.  Come along to join us outside McDonald’s in Western Road, Brighton from 12noon to 2pm.

McDonald’s, the leader of the UK’s fast food industry, boosts its mega profits by forcing 90% of its workforce to accept zero hours contracts.  In 2012, fast food chains in the UK saw sales rise to a staggering £6.9 billion.  Despite these huge profits, the average UK fast food worker earns just £5 an hour (PayScale figures, January 2014).  By employing so many young workers, fast food chains exploit the age exceptions in the UK’s minimum wage laws to increase their already huge profits.  They also take advantage of most young people having little or no experience of the advantages of organising together in trades unions.   Support this campaign which is part of an international movement of fast food workers fighting for their rights, from New Zealand and Australia to the USA and now the UK.

Public meeting organised by Mid Sussex Labour Parties

7.30pm, Wednesday 22 January 2014

Adastra Hall, 31 Keymer Road

Hassocks BN6 8QH

Speakers: Anneliese Dodds, Alan Rew & Nick Grealy

Solidarity with Firefighters’ strikes

7pm – midnight Tuesday 24 December 2013

6.30pm – 12.30am Tuesday 31 December 2013

6.30am – 8.30am Friday 3 January 2014

Support FBU pickets at firestations across Sussex

Defend Firefighters against “No Job, No Pension“

“Firefighters on duty over the festive period don’t have much to celebrate this year and tonight’s strikes will remind the government of the service we provide 24 hour a day, 365 days a year, every year of our careers.  Nobody wants these strikes but firefighters remain extremely angry over the prospect of being priced out of their pensions and facing the sack owing to the government’s ludicrous pretence that men and women of 60 can meet the same fitness standards as 20 year olds.”  Matt Wrack, FBU General Secretary

The storms that have swept the UK since Monday 23 December have highlighted the essential work that firefighters do.  West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service said it had received between 500 and 600 emergency calls overnight on 23 December with rescue crews mobilised to between 300 and 400 incidents.  East Sussex Fire and Rescue Services also reported one of its busiest nights ever.   Firefighters are deeply committed to their local communities and do not take strike action lightly.  “People do not become firefighters to become rich…(but) to serve the public, to put other people first, to risk their lives to save others”  Simon Herbert, Chair, East Sussex FBU.

The united and resolute attitude of firefighters has forced Fire Minister Brandon Lewis to talk to the FBU for the first time in two months but, for an hour or so on Christmas Eve, is this just posturing ahead of this next round of strikes?  Certainly nothing Lewis has done so far has appeared sincere except his support for privatisation of the Fire Service – and an attack on workers’ pensions is always the first move when the government prepares to sell-off a public asset.  Firefighters are prepared for a long and difficult campaign, if necessary, as Matt Wrack explains in this short video.  The Coalition needs to take firefighters’ issues seriously and to settle this dispute by serious negotiations, not media moves.

Meanwhile Coalition cuts mean East Sussex Fire Authority is still working on its budget to slash spending by almost a fifth over five years.  We urge you to contact East Sussex Fire Authority Members to register your opposition to these cuts, demand they do the same, and insist that all future discussions are held in public.  Also contact your local councillors with the same message, even if your councillors are not members of the Fire Authority.  These councillors are elected to represent the people of Sussex.  Let’s make sure they do!  We need to defend our Fire & Rescue Services from further cuts.

Please support firefighters’ picket lines when they strike again on Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve and on the morning of Friday 3 January 2014.  Using these handy FBU templates, please also write to your MP to object to these changes.  The Fire Service is facing huge cuts under the Coalition and Tory Fire Minister Brandon Lewis is pushing a privatisation agenda.  We must stand together with firefighters now to defend our Fire Service. 

Time is running out for you to respond to the Collins Review before it closes on 24 December 2013.  So, if you haven’t already submitted your views to Ray Collins, please do so now.  Everything you need to do this is below.

If you’re up against a list of Christmas jobs, Ian Hodson offers you this short inspirational message.  You can also watch Ian’s full speech defending Labour’s trade union link.  Fundamentally, we must keep the Labour Party’s trade union link on a collective affiliation basis!

Ian Hodson speaking to Sussex LRC (c) Nick Hider

It’s easy to participate if you use the model response drafted by the Defend the Link campaign .  It is most important to stress that Labour must retain its existing trade union links, which give trades unions the right to participate collectively as affiliated organisations.

Your response to the Collins Review can be emailed to: onenationparty@labour.org.uk

Or it can be uploaded via: http://action.labour.org.uk/page/s/one-nation-party

Or post first class to: One Nation Party, Labour Central, Kings Manor, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 6PA.  Royal Mail’s last recommended posting date for delivery by 24 December is Friday 20 December for first class post, so get your skates on!

More information is available via our dedicated Defend the Link page.

Every individual Labour Party or affiliated member, affiliated trade union branch, Labour Party branch or Constituency Labour Party (CLP) can submit a response to the Collins Review set-up by Ed Miliband to examine Labour’s trade union links, but these responses must arrive before the Collins Review closes on 24 December.  Don’t miss out on your chance to defend the Labour Party’s trade union link!

The 15 trades unions currently affiliated to the Labour Party