A Happy and Peaceful New Year - and organise!

"Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. And overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life. While poverty persists, there is no true freedom." Nelson Mandela.

After a year that saw the ConDems institutionalise poverty with the bedroom tax, child poverty rising, most of those in poverty being in work, and food banks becoming one of the few growth industries, let's organise for change in 2014.

Have a Happy and peaceful New Year and organise!

TUC 2013 Preview: Oh! We do like to be beside the seaside

#TUC13 The bucket and spades are packed, the correct length of trouser leg to be rolled up for paddling purposes has been calculated and the knotted hankies are at the ready. The TUC has decamped to Bournemouth for the next few days for its 145th annual jamboree. Starting on Sunday, Congress will set out its campaign programme for the period up to the next general election.

Labour must repeal bedroom tax – Joe Anderson

#UNDC13 #ULGC13 The directly elected Mayor of Liverpool and UNISON member, Joe Anderson, opened the local government service group conference this morning. Trade union rights, blacklisting and facility time featured prominently in Joe’s speech as well as austerity and its devastating impact on his city which is hardest hit by local government funding cuts.

Austerity ratchet turned up on poor as rich receive cash windfall

This week marks an escalation in the Coalition Government’s war against the poor in Britain. Passed off as ‘predictable criticism’ by well heeled Chancellor George Osborne MP, there is growing public outrage at the imposition of the bedroom tax on low income social housing tenants at the same time as the richest 1.5% of earners receive a 5% tax cut with 13,000 millionaires getting a tax cut of £100,000 per year:
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/03/why-april-will-be-cruellest-month-age-austerity

To Hell with the Con Dem Bedroom Tax

Today another Bedroom Tax Day of Action will take place across the country building upon the spontaneous nationwide protests of a fortnight ago. A full list of the 50+ protests taking place is available on the Labour Left website.
    Dave Prentis speaks on behalf of all UNION members in condemning the obscene and punitive social engineering which underpins this grotesque attack on the incomes of Britain’s poorest people: ‘I can understand why landlords might be driven to take a sledgehammer to the bedroom wall and the bedroom tax. Where are the smaller homes to move to? They just aren’t available. It hits 670,000 households in April but in the whole of last year there were only 250,000 social lettings’.

Britain revolts against Bedroom Tax

UNISON's Community service group conference adjourned yesterday morning to join in with the Manchester protest against the Con Dem Bedroom Tax. SGE chair Kevin Jackson said delegates were 'proud to be showing solidarity with thousands of people up and down the country opposed to the bedroom tax. Vulnerable people we work with on a daily basis, including many disabled people, will be made to suffer and forced to the margins of society.'
50,000 people in Manchester and Salford will pay as much as £1,000 a year more rent from 1 April when changes to housing benefit are implemented. Well supported protests were held in towns and cities across Britain with many UNISON members present.