A Tale of Two New Year Messages

A comparison of the New Year messages issued by the CBI and the TUC reveals a far more assertive and upbeat mood from the employers organisation. The CBI Director General John Cridland sets his stall out for a hard line on deficit reduction (aka cutting public spending), for business friendly restructuring of the education system, EU reform (aka deregulation, notably singling out the Working Time Directive).
   Ever hungry for new markets for his profit seeking affiliates, Cridland promotes the EU/US trade deal TTIP and calls for a radical ‘structural reform’ of public services including integration of health and social care.
   TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady focuses on the unrelenting decline in real earnings in the UK (a reduction of £487 in 2014 alone and £2,509 since 2010) and challenges employers and politicians to ‘make wage-led growth a policy priority’. While the TUC leader is right to raise the alarm about the Tory threat to the right to strike it is unclear what evidence exists (given the austerity consensus) to support her sweeping statement that the ‘Autumn Statement opened up a huge choice in British politics between radical cuts and pay freezes versus investment for the future and a strategy for decent jobs, homes and living standards’.

2014 is UN Year of Solidarity With the Palestinian People - Make It Count

Many days or years are marked out for international commemorations but none is more important than the United Nations General Assembly decision to proclaim 2014 as the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. In the UK the Palestine Solidarity Campaign works tirelessly in support of justice for the Palestinian people and deserves the support of all UNISON activists and branches in the year ahead. Make it one of your New Year's resolutions to back the campaign!
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp/www.iaea.org/story.asp?NewsID=46578&Cr=Palestin&Cr1=
http://www.palestinecampaign.org/

Get involved in the actions and passions of our time

A New Year Message from Denis Goldberg.
I hope 2014 will be a better year in the advance to a world that is fit for human beings. But it can only be better if we, all of us, make the effort to find ways to deal with the economic, social and political crises that the super rich countries of the world create as they continue to skew the benefits of our human capacity to invent, to find creative solutions that start to reverse the structured inequality of our society. It does need restructuring and we must do it.

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!

A Happy and Peaceful New Year

And what better way to start than with a selection of quotes from Nelson Mandela....
On Poverty: "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.

Happy New Year from the Cuban 5

Dear friends:
I wish to convey to all of you my most sincere appreciation for another year in solidarity with this struggle for truth and justice.

The year which will soon end is yet another year of significant efforts of  all those, who in one way or another, contribute to the objective of making the freedom of  the Cuban Five a reality.